julius borchert

Tagliabue Floating Idea of Two Monday Night Games

NEW YORK (Dec. 11) -- NFL owners may be asked to consider the possibility of
two Monday night games each week to avoid the recurring problem of
meaningless
late-season games in the league's showcase telecast.

Commissioner Paul Tagliabue floated the idea in the second of a two-part
interview aired Thursday night on HBO's "Inside the NFL."

"We'd like to look to see if we could put more than one game in the
prime-time
window," he said. "The one that is more attractive would be telecast
nationally; the other could be telecast regionally."

The Monday night schedule is released in early spring. Teams with winning
records the previous year normally play in the majority of the prime-time
games.

But salary-cap induced parity has led to drastic annual fluctuations. If
this
season ended now, nine of last season's 12 playoff teams would miss the
postseason, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, who
played
in the Super Bowl.

So, ABC has been asking the league for the flexibility to switch a Sunday
game
to Monday late in a season to avoid a meaningless matchup. Fox and CBS,
which
have the contracts for Sunday games, have resisted, suggesting that they
would
lose viewers if there was a late switch that took an attractive matchup from
their schedule.

Tagliabue said a late switch also would inconvenience fans with tickets for
a
game. His alternative would be the two games.

But that would still have to be approved by the networks and the owners -
perhaps at league meetings next March. He did not say what financial
arrangements would be involved, although ABC would have to make a financial
concession to the network that loses a Sunday game.

Last year, the owners discussed the possibility of switching Sunday and
Monday
night games. But because of opposition from Fox and CBS, there was no vote
taken.